Tag Archives: photos

My internal HD is too full, so I want to make room for macOS to run smoothly again. As my Photos.app database is huge, would it be possible to move that database onto an external HD that is continuously connected to my Mac.

Is there any option to do so ?

Answer :

Yes, it is possible to move your entire Photos.app database to an external HD. Apple does explicitly recommend to use an external HD that is connected to your Mac directly with USB, ThunderBolt or FireWire. (and Apple explicitly recommends against putting your active Photos.app database on a wireless drive or network drive)

To do this, do this :

get yourself an external HD, preferably one that is using a fast cable connection to connect to your Mac ; Samsung currently has some small and very good external HDs using USB-C for this : Samsung T5 Portable SSD

plug the external HD into your Mac

goto Applications –> Utilities –> Disk Utility

open Disk Utility

reformat the external HD as “Mac OS Extended”

now, in the Finder, create a new folder on the external HD named Pictures

then, in the Finder, goto Users –> [your name] –> Pictures

then drag&drop the Photos Library file to the external HD you have just created

…this may take a while

when done, open the Photos.app while pressing the [ALT]-key

in the Choose Library window that opens, click on the “Other Library”-button

now Photos.app will start up using the Photos Library on the external HD (and it will keep using the Photos Library on the external HD as its default library from now on)

check inside Photos.app to see if all your photos are now available (there’s no reason why they wouldn’t but just to make sure…)

now start using this setup as your new Photos.app setup, and if you don’t run into any problems in a few weeks (or even months if you need to) you can delete the Photos Library that was in the Pictures folder in your Home folder on your Mac’s internal drive to clear up some space

I am trying to get my photos from my iPhone onto my Mac. But after connecting my iPhone using USB the Photos.app does start up in macOS, but the newest photos I’ve made with my iPhone never show up my Mac.

Even though you are encountering a very annoying problem, it’s rather easy to solve :

disconnect your iPhone (or iPad) from your Mac

open the Photos.app in iOS (on your iPhone/iPad)

click on the Photos-button (bottom-left ; the icon consisting of a double rectangle with the text ‘Photos’ below it)

select one photo one of the newest photos

then click on the Share-button (bottom-left ; the icon consisting of a square with an arrow pointing upward)

select all photos that are not showing up on you Mac, by swiping the photos to the left and right and tapping the bottom-right circle of each individual missing photo (the circle will turn into a blue checkmark)

then swipe in the row of app-icons to the Shared Albums icon and click it

With this AirDrop-alternative, file transfer is very quick …and it’s even more compatible than the official AirDrop : the app can be installed on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 4.3 and the WiFi-connection can be made from any Mac or PC using a web browser…